Sponsorship & Marketing

WiZink Center to rebrand as Movistar Arena

Featured image credit: Luis García/CC BY-SA 4.0/Edited for size

Madrid’s WiZink Center will rebrand as the Movistar Arena in 2025 as part of a new sponsorship deal between the venue manager and telecommunications company Telefónica.

Telefónica, the parent company of Movistar, agreed the deal with Impulsa Eventos e Instalaciones, the company that manages the arena. The venue is owned by the Comunidad de Madrid.

Spanish online bank WiZink has sponsored the 17,400-capacity arena since 2016. In 2020, the company agreed a new six-year deal that had been due to run until 2026, but it has now been replaced by Movistar.

In a statement, WiZink Center said that WiZink has expressed a willingness to end its sponsorship early, motivated by the launch of its new strategic plan which will run from 2024 to 2028.

WiZink Center serves as the home of basketball teams Real Madrid and Movistar Estudiantes. It has also hosted EuroLeague, EuroBasket and FIBA events, as well as regular concerts.

Iheb Nafaa, chief executive of WiZink, said: “At WiZink we are very proud to have contributed to the growth of the Center during the 10 years of sponsorship and to have positioned the space as the reference place for sport, music and the celebration of major events not only in the Comunidad de Madrid, but also at a national level.”

Movistar also sponsors arenas in Buenos Aires, Bogotá and Santiago.

Emilio Gayo, president of Telefónica España, said: “For Telefónica, it is a great satisfaction to conclude the year of our centenary with the announcement of the sponsorship of a venue that is a world reference for the quality and quantity of the events it hosts.

“For Telefónica, and its commercial brand Movistar, it is always a priority to be in the centre where things happen, and from 2025 the Movistar Arena will undoubtedly be a great centre of connection between people and the world of music and entertainment, and a space in which we will have the opportunity to display our technological and digital leadership.”

WiZink Center is one of the busiest arenas in the world, attracting more than two million visitors and staging more than 200 events annually.